CAPACITANCE BASED BIOSENSOR

Abstract

A method for electronically detecting an electrostatic based biological binding event. This same binding event can be detected optically via complicated experimental setups. A balanced coil system is incorporated into a hand held unit with a plug-in chip. The chip may further be made to act like an array with a different surface molecule for detection of different bio-molecules.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A illustrates a sensor configured in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1B illustrates a sensor array configured in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1C illustrates an insulator layer on a sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a system configured in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a graph of sensed biological substances; and

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary output from the oscilloscope illustrating measurements of the output signal from the transformer coil.

Claims

1. A sensor comprising: a first pair of interdigitated electrodes comprising an active node;a second pair of interdigitated electrodes comprising a reference node;a center electrode coupled to the first and second pairs of interdigitated electrodes;a sine wave generator delivering a sine wave input signal to the center electrode;a balanced transformer coil receiving outputs from each of the active and reference nodes; anda device for measuring an output of the balanced transformer coil.

2. The sensor as recited in claim 1, wherein the device is an oscilloscope.

3. The sensor as recited in claim 1, wherein the active node is exposed to a biological substance.

4. The sensor as recited in claim 3, wherein the reference node is insulated from exposure to the biological substance.

5. The sensor as recited in claim 4, wherein the reference node is coated with an insulating oxide.

6. The sensor as recited in claim 1, wherein the device measures a voltage level of the output from the balanced transformer coil.

7. The sensor as recited in claim 1, wherein the device measures a phase shift of the output from the balanced transformer coil.